The week in classical: Khovanshchina; Carmen review – the parallels with modern Russia are unmissable
Fiona Maddocks
The Observer
April 19, 2025
Music
Mussorgsky’s apocalyptic unfinished opera is given a fierce new lease of life by the McBurney brothers, Esa-Pekka Salonen and an exceptional young mezzo
Man on first date admits dangerous driving in Newcastle crash that injured police
Harry Taylor
theguardian.com
April 19, 2025
UK news
Seven officers taken to hospital after Mazyar Azarbonyad, 20, crashed BMW while being pursued by police on A1
Gossip, gowns and Agas: could Ladies of the Cotswolds be reality TV’s next big thing?
Barbara Ellen
The Observer
April 19, 2025
Television & radio
Grand Designs team to make show set in wealthy English countryside that promises to be part glittering social whirl and part bloodbath
Orbán’s stance on Ukraine pushes Hungary to brink in EU relations
Jennifer Rankin in Brussels
The Observer
April 19, 2025
World news
Member states are considering removing the country’s voting rights after its attempts to stymie support for Kyiv
Roast chicken and citrus salad: Caroline Eden’s walnut recipes
Caroline Eden
The Guardian
April 19, 2025
Food
Enjoy a new way of cooking with abundant herbs and nuts, as they do in the South Caucasus, with chicken in a white wine and walnut sauce, and a citrus and walnut salad
An Israeli bomb took a teen’s arm in Gaza. She’s healing with a family in Philadelphia
Melissa Hellmann
theguardian.com
April 19, 2025
US news
Tasneem Sharif Abbas, 16, flew with her sister to the US, where doctors awaited and volunteers cheered their arrival
US philanthropists warn against capitulating to Trump: ‘We need to step up’
David Smith in Washington
theguardian.com
April 19, 2025
US news
Foundation leaders say charitable organisations could be next in the firing line – but must ‘stand together’ to resist
This is how we do it: ‘Being with him again is bliss. I’ve not had an orgasm during sex since we broke up in 1982’
As told to Kitty Drake
The Guardian
April 19, 2025
Life and style
Nick and Lily were lovers in their 20s and reconnected 40 years later. But should they walk away from their marriages?
Sally Phillips and her family look back: ‘I wanted to be the kind of actress who plays Juliet at the RSC, but it turns out people don’t take me seriously’
Harriet Gibsone
The Guardian
April 19, 2025
Life and style
The comic, her brother and her mum and dad on a nomadic childhood, not doing a PhD in spaghetti westerns, and taking the plunge as an actor
Why JMW Turner is still Britain’s best artist, 250 years on
Jonathan Jones
The Guardian
April 19, 2025
Art and design
The revered artist conjured groundbreaking scenes of gods, legends and lost civilisations, but, more than anything, his work came to represent the complex soul of Britain like that of no artist before or since